Wednesday, 16 November 2016

One of the Chartership categories I've chosen is "Copyright". Copyright is one of those things that I know is important, but which I've always found difficult. I decided that I needed to learn about copyright for the following reasons:

In my current role I work with the VLE, and occasionally get emails asking us to put certain documents on the system for students to access. This is rare, because most of our courses are planned in advance and the resources decided upon well before time, but it does occasionally happen. We have a specialist copyright officer, but she isn't full time, and works in another centre, so I thought it would be a good idea to get some extra knowledge.

In the future it's possible that I may move on to another role where students or staff consult me about copyright issues. I want to be able to help them with confidence if this does happen.

In today's Internet-dominated world, where things are shared online regularly, copyright is an important topic to know about in a more general sense.

Once I'd decided to learn more about copyright, what did I do?

I read the Facet Publishing book about copyright, Copyright: Interpreting the
law for libraries, archives and information services. I also read a textbook available to me at the university I work at, originally written for law students on the Intellectual Property module.

I completed a film copyright course on FutureLearn, which allowed me to look at at copyright from a different angle.

How do I feel about copyright now?
I feel I have a much better knowledge about copyright, what it is and what it does, the reasons for its existence and how it can apply in a university setting.

What next?
I would like to be able to apply my new-found knowledge in a real setting, able to assist with queries from students and staff. I would like to chat with our copyright officer to find out more about what she does on a day-to-day basis.

Saturday, 10 September 2016

The National Theatre has kept archives since it was founded in 1963, but it has only had a "proper" archive since the 1990s, and the current building (the NT Studio beside the Old Vic) has only been in use since 2007. The public reading room is open five days a week, and welcomes around 2,700 researchers each year.

The Archive covers three main areas: the first is the most popular and consists of cultural archives, such as photos, press reviews, stage management reports, programmes, posters, prompt scripts and the costume bible - including, in recent years, high definition photographs of costumes so that they can be recreated later on if need be. Many of these were used during the recent 50th anniversary celebrations. Recordings have been made since 1995 (except where contract negotiations don't allow it) - Platform recordings (where an actor or other theatre practitioner is interviewed in front of an audience) have been undertaken since the late 1980s. The cultural archive is fully catalogued.

The second part is the business archive, including meeting minutes, architectural plans et al: much of this is sensitive material. This archive includes the only plans of the Olivier's drum revolve, as well as information about the founding of the theatre The third part is the external collections: the largest is the Jocelyn Herbert Collection, the archive of the acclaimed set and costume designer, consisting of around 6000 drawings, notebooks and even masks from one of her productions.

As the Archive is part of the Learning department, it can focus on being an academic resource, and not bringing in money. In any case, everything is in copyright so it cannot be commercialised. The Archive aims to support every level of learning: for those of school age, lots of plays the NT has produced are on the syllabus, and many pupils get the chance to take part in Archive Learning Days, in which they see the play and then explore the relevant resources.

The Archive works closely with the Digital Development department: an app has recently been launched with digitised archive content covering the "best" 50 plays performed at the National.
The Archive uses the CALM software, and it is possible to search by production, actor, or a number of other criteria. The press often use the information in obituaries.

The Archive catalogue can be accessed online, and you can also email queries in from the website. Resources are used in exhibitions at the NT, and on the last Friday of every month, the NT Archivist and curator offer a tour of the exhibition in the Lyttelton Lounge followed by a handling session with materials from the Archive.

It's possible to go to the Archive reading rooms to watch a recording of an NT Live or other recorded production: recent popular productions have included Frankenstein and One Man Two Guvnors. I keep meaning to book an appointment to watch His Dark Materials - one day I'll get around to it!

The conference looked at issues surrounding privacy and security online. It had a US focus but there was plenty that was relevant to the UK. For me, the most interesting presentations were, firstly, Jessamyn West's The Digital Divide and Privacy Concerns, which discussed the privacy needs and wants of "ordinary" people. She pointed out that while having lots of passwords to protect your online privacy is the ideal, in practice it's unlikely that people will be willing to do this and it's important to balance privacy with realism. I also found M. Ryan Hess's Make Your Library a Privacy and Security Resource interesting, with discussions of various privacy and security tools including Firefox, Ghostery, Disconnect and DuckDuckGo. On a more theoretical level, Martyn Wade's presentation on The 'Right to be Forgotten' and Its Impact on Libraries and Librarians was also interesting.

Thursday, 24 March 2016

The CILIP Information Services Group recently organised a visit to the Zoological Society of London Library, which I signed up for really quickly. The Library is located near London Zoo, and we gathered in the Council Room of the ZSL headquarters to begin the visit.

ZSL is the charity behind London Zoo and Whipsnade Zoo, as well as being a research institute funded by UCL. We were told a bit about the history of ZSL, which was established by Sir Stamford Raffles and Sir Humphry Davy in 1826. Impressively, women were admitted as fellows from 1827. The Council Room is full of pictures of individuals who have made contributions to the Society, including Prince Albert, who was the President from 1851-61, Harry Johnston (who discovered the okapi and many, many other animals), and Miriam Rothschild. Famous names in the visitors' book include Elizabeth II, Emperor Hirohito, John Paul Getty and Jackie Kennedy.

The Library, which can be reached online at library.zsl.org, is located upstairs in the building and is a rich resource of books and journals about zoology and animal conservation. It is open Monday to Friday, and is open to all for reference purposes, but only Fellows of the ZSL can borrow books. We got to wander around the Library and explore for ourselves. Naturally I went straight to the penguin section:

My favourite part of the visit was getting the chance to look at some of the archives and rare books that the librarians had very kindly got out for us. They included an early "Daily Occurrences" ledger, the very first Council Minutes (with the signature of Sir Stamford Raffles), the animal record card for Winnie the bear (the original Winnie-the-Pooh), newspaper clippings concerning an escapee eagle, and a medieval tome containing pictures of all kinds of weird and wonderful creatures (some real, some imagined).

Thursday, 17 March 2016

I visited the Conway Hall Library with ARLG. Conway Hall is a building near Holborn, London, owned by Conway Hall Ethical Society. It was opened in 1929, named after Moncure Daniel Conway (1832-1907), an anti-slavery advocate and supporter of free thought. These days it hosts a wide variety of performances, lectures and classes.

The Library contains the Ethical Society's collection, the largest and most comprehensive Humanist Research resource of its kind in the UK. Members of the Ethical Society can borrow books, and the Library is open to the public for research.

The Library is beautiful, as befits a resource contained within a Grade II listed building. The resources it contains include historical texts, artworks, music, pamphlets and archives. We got the chance to look at several items from the collection, including records of previous lectures and events held within the building.

As well as looking around the Library, we also got a tour of the building as a whole. The lecture hall is particularly impressive.

I enjoyed the chance to look around such an interesting and unusual library.

Thursday, 3 March 2016

At the beginning of March I took part in my first ever #UKLibChat. The theme was 'Mid-Career Directions' and I thought it seemed quite appropriate for me. I graduated five years ago last summer, have been in my current job for five years and have recently begun Chartership, so I am clearly no longer a "new professional".

To prepare for the session I read Laura Woods' thought-provoking blog post on the subject, which was really interesting. In it she talks about how her experience has helped her work out what she likes and what she doesn't like, so she knows what to focus on when selecting and applying for future jobs. It's slightly different for me as I've only had one role since graduating from my Masters (except for a few months temping) so I don't quite have the breadth of experience, but undoubtedly I've gained a lot of experience in my current role.

The libchat itself has been Storified here if you would like to look it up. I really enjoyed it and it left me with lots to think about. One of the interesting things about the chat was that no one seemed to be certain what exactly "mid-career" meant. I actually see this as a positive as to me it implies flexibility, that it can be whatever you want to make it. We discussed ways to stay motivated and relevant and how to keep up with CPD, and I left feeling more confident than when I arrived.

Monday, 22 February 2016

The theme of this year’s Blackboard Users’
Conference, held on 7th & 8th January at Durham University Business School, was “Learning From Failure”, which was suggested by delegates from
last year’s conference. The keynote was delivered by Eric Stoller, who
addressed the issues of digital identity and failure on social media.

Blackboard themselves also addressed the
conference, although they called their talk “Reflections on a shared journey”
rather than examining the concept of learning from failure. They examined the
changes that the system has undergone over the years and the needs of
Blackboard today, including a resilient server, trained staff, backups and
appropriate network access. These days the system is “mission critical” and
users have higher expectations.

A
Sessions: Is There A Place for Blackboard Collaborate in Blended Learning
Design – Matt Cornock, University of York

This session looked at whether Blackboard
Collaborate could be useful in blended learning – learning that mixes face to
face and distance learning. It covered the issues that can be experienced with
Blackboard Collaborate including loss of sound quality, connection reliability,
issues with the launcher and whiteboard interaction. MC discussed a case study
in which students on a creative writing programme used Collaborate to try and
replicate the face to face environment. It was found that this didn’t work as
the online environment could not facilitate the spontaneity and natural
atmosphere of a face to face environment. Also, remote students by this time
had already formed their own social groups for mutual support so they did not
need to approach these sessions in the same way.

However, Collaborate has been proved to be
useful for such functions as library tutorials and support, as well as group
work, some individual tuition, teleconferencing and careers workshops.

This session examined the issues faced by
staff at Regent’s University London when designing a pre-induction course for
students. The course was designed to streamline the induction process for
students which can often be daunting.

The course was designed to be a simple
student-centric platform with a single login so that all students could access
it even if they did not yet have their own personal login details. It focused
on the key information that students would need when arriving at university,
including information about accommodation, visas and study skills. The students
were not taught how to use Blackboard – it was hoped that they would be able to
pick it up through completing this simple course.

The homepage was designed to resemble the
University website so that students grew familiar with the structure of the
website. There was only one course link to click on to get to the information
they needed. There was an element of interactivity: e.g. a checklist entitled
“Are You Ready?” consisting of a series of yes or no questions checking if
students had everything they would need. There was also an interactive map of
the campus.

987 of the trial students completed the
final survey. The most popular elements were the introduction and the “Are You
Ready?” questionnaire. In general there was a good student uptake with positive
feedback, and a reduction in emails to student support. This was done for the
Jan rollout and will be improved for the September cohort.

This session charted the University of Cumbria’s
use of Blackboard as their VLE platform since 2003. At the time, study was
mostly campus based but videos would be filmed and posted out to distance
learners. Students also had to send paper-based submissions through the post.

Over time there was a move to integrate Bb
usernames and passwords with University ones, and they got the licensed mobile
site in 2012. In 2014, Bb was listed by the University as “mission critical”
for disaster recovery.

This year it was decided that every
programme should have a presence on Blackboard. A benchmarking exercise was
introduced in order to check whether courses were active, if they contained any
broken links, or had any hidden content. An annual review is now planned to
ensure that high standards are maintained.

D
Sessions: Working With Students as Partners to Help You Identify and Learn from
Your Mistakes: Developing a Pre-Arrival Study Skills Course for all
Undergraduates – Sam Nolan, Eleanor Loughlin, Malcolm Murray, Elaine Tan and
Jacquie Scollen, Durham University

After it was suggested that students wanted
more contact before arriving at university, it was decided at Durham that a
pre-arrival study skills course should be developed. A short 2-week course was
trialled last summer, covering topics such as preparing for academic study,
independent learning and digital literacy. A videographer was employed to film
staff and current students talking about relevant topics. Other areas such as
library services were also explored. The course will be rolled out to all
students in the next academic year.

The course contains information about
coming to Durham, preparing for arrival and transitioning to independent
learning. It also contains information
about classes and reading materials, as well as support services such as
library services. To date, the course has received 103, 576 views. Student
feedback suggests that those using the course feel more prepared for their
arrival at Durham.

The presentation explored mistakes the
staff felt they had made and the steps they plan to take to rectify these. For
instance, they felt that they should have involved students as consultants from
the start of the project, and made risk management a priority earlier on.

E
Sessions: The SPECTRE of Blackboard Design – James Leahy, Regent’s University
London

This session looked at the syndrome of “Persistent
Empty Courses” at Regent’s University – the problem of lecturers not making
good use of Blackboard courses to enhance learning even though the offline
course was excellent. In this example, the presenter added banners, logos and
videos to the course to demonstrate the potential of online materials.

F
Sessions: Establishing High Stakes Computer-Based Testing through Blackboard As
A Supported Service: An Institutional Perspective On Key Challenges and Lessons
Learned – Richard Walker and Andy Parkinson, University of York

This session looked at the growing use of
VLEs for formal assessment and explored the ways in which staff at the University
of York have coped with the challenges of implementing this. Exams on the VLE
must be intuitive, flawless and fit for purpose, with a dedicated
infrastructure and automated marking.

Staff were aware of possible issues that
could arise, including loss of student data and multiple workstation failure.
They took steps to minimize this, including creating separate exam accounts for
students.

Some of the issues encountered included
students being sent to the wrong rooms, and ongoing challenges with
timetabling. One issue involved the randomization of questions – some students
were shown the harder, essay-style questions first while others were given
multiple-choice questions – this could be seen as unfair, so the issue was
later rectified.

G
Sessions: How I Have So Far Failed To Create A Fully Accessible VLE – Al
Holloway, University of Northampton

Al Holloway’s presentation explored how he
has tried to create a fully accessible VLE, but this has been difficult without
the wholehearted support of all staff. Accessibility issues include Blackboard
themes and layouts, video content, recorded lectures, documents and content
authoring, and different browsers. Some
staff responded to his requests to look at making their material more
accessible, but others made less of an effort. He emphasized the importance of
gaining support from key stakeholders, and suggests implementing a method to
audit accessibility.

H
Sessions: Electronic Submission on Large and Complex Courses – Chris Boon, City
College Norwich

This course looked at ways to manage the
Grade Centre in Blackboard given the widespread use of electronic submission.
These methods including splitting the class into groups, creating categories,
and using Smart Views.

I found the conference really useful, and it was good to meet other people who work with VLEs. I picked up some useful pointers and learned a good deal.

Friday, 15 January 2016

Towards the end of last year I finally took the plunge and registered for Chartership. I found a mentor and began to make plans. After many years of procrastinating, I was finally about to begin the process.

My first task was to go through the PKSB (Professional Knowledge and Skills Base) and pick out areas I thought I might like to develop. The PKSB looks really daunting at first, but remember, you aren't expected to do everything! I found blog posts about the process by WoodsieGirl and Steve Carlton, which were really useful in helping me work out exactly what I needed to do.

I began by going through the entire PKSB and giving myself a score for each area, as well as a score for my ideal skill level. I ended up with roughly three categories: areas in which I feel my skills are up to scratch; areas in which I don't have much expertise but which are not immediately relevant to my role and projected career path; and areas which are relevant but which are in need of improvement. This last category is certainly the most important in terms of Chartership.

Area
of PKSB

3. Using and exploiting knowledge and
information

3.3 Information retrieval

5. Information Governance and
Compliance

5.3 Copyright, intellectual property
and licensing

8. Literacies and Learning

8.6 Teaching and training skills

8.8 Virtual learning environments

11. Customer Focus, Service Design
and Marketing

11.4 Service innovation, development
and design

Other PKSB elements

Ethics and Values

Wider Library, Information and
Knowledge Sector Context

Wider Organisation and Environmental
Context

After some thought I settled on the categories above. I discussed them with my mentor to make sure I was on the right lines. I wanted to make sure I chose a variety of skills and knowledge areas from different areas, with a good mix of concrete skills and general awareness.

I already have some ideas of how I'm going to develop my skills, and I have made a plan of sorts - it's just a matter of sticking to it! One of my objectives was to attend the 2016 Blackboard Users' Conference in Durham, and I did that at the beginning of January, so I can tick something off my list. I've also completed a MOOC about literature searching. Next up is a write-up of the conference, after which I need to tackle some reflective pieces.

My tips for the initial PKSB assessment are as follows:

Try not to get overwhelmed: remember, you don't need to aim for a 4 in everything - you only need to select up to 10 areas.

Ask for advice, or at least, try and and find out how others coped with the assessment: as I mentioned, I found the blog posts mentioned above very informative.

Discuss it with your mentor: either before, during or after your self-assessment. They can help reassure you that you are on the right lines.

Don't worry about getting your initial scores completely right - they are just estimates and you will not be tested on them.